US games industry on the mend

Staff writer, 16th April 2010

US games sale are finally on the rise again, according to NPD Group, with Nintendo's games platforms, new Pokemon games and Sony's God of War III all doing well.

The firm says total March sales were six percent up on last year, at $1.52 billion. Games sales rose 10 percent to $875.3 million, with God of War leading, followed by a Nintendo Pokemon game - SoulSilver - and Final Fantasy XIII.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 didn't make the top ten this month, but did become the second-best-selling game of all time, after Nintendo's Wii Play.

Hardware sales fell four percent to $440.5 million - although this is partly because of lower console prices, says NPD.

Nintendo had the top two spots, selling 557,000 units of its hand-held DS and 700,800 of its Wii console, followed by the Microsoft Xbox at 338,400 units.

While Sony only shifted 313,900 PlayStation 3s, this was the eightth month in a row to show an increase, and 44 percent up on last March.

In January and February, total games market sales fell 13 percent and 14 percent respectively.